“Anything But Summer” by E.V. Noechel
I dread the weight of summer. Spring and I are on speaking terms but I know she’s hiding sweltering, sweaty days behind her back. Some years she can’t be bothered to show up at all and summer barges in, taking over the place, dropping his bags of thunderstorms and hot, dog-shit scented pavement by […]
“Living Alone” by gary phillips
My grandmother Lilly Grew up just light enough to pass But not to matter; married at 13 Made her life a torch of love and raised 8 babies on nothing But what they could scratch and raise and kill Buried a husband in her 60s Come live with us her children chimed, but she […]
“Peripaticity” by George Kauffman
I feel the earth’s spin more each day In an Infinitismal way, The press of birds moving south toward warmth and Fields drying where they lay. Green to tan and touched by gold Subdued and dry replace the bold, Though earth’s spin continues What once was new now is old. Til another year starts […]
“Rose Garden” by Sam Barbee
Arid days, you let me water herbs and beans. Leaf bellies and blooms wet and revealed. A laden vine shaken unnerved by muscled wind. Disallowed to reap: too soon; too late, or misjudge rot. Even when I spot danger, or limitless sour curling past dawn. A terrible victory, half-lies decided. If […]
“Farewell Johnny Mack” by Neil Smith
Johnny Mack Brown may Be in the ground but I remember his All American self rein whipping his palomino Reno to go faster faster Through the canyon past the cacti In hot pursuit of shady guys With really bad mustaches.
“Learning by Heart” by Janet Ford
The radiator hissed and hummed and hammered as we solved and spelled in kept silence; among the drip-cans, rain pinged like answers dropped through cracked ceilings. Here we would learn who we would become. In a loose gray dress and all her ease, Miss Rivers took the floor, flagship of our ragtag fleet. […]
“Leatherwood Falls” by Brenda Kay Ledford
Blanche packs a picnic: tomato sandwich with mayonnaise, a moon pie and RC Cola. Horseback riding through rhododendrons at the Fires Creek Campground, wood smoke wafts on a breeze. Campers roasting hotdogs and marshmallows over a fire. Bullfrogs blow their trumpets, white-tailed deer drink clear waters. She fords the stream: Leatherwood […]
“Silver Needles” by Tom Scheve
Silvery needles on Pines of green swaying gently on winds unseen Whispering songs through limbs up high, soothing sounds that fill the sky. Yet those needles of silver and green that glisten brightly, can’t be seen by minds cluttered with useless thoughts, making the miracle all for not. Clear your minds and enjoy with […]
“Leukemia” by Mark MacAllister
Given snow in the forecast I called on my Midwest skills topped-off the fuel tank for more weight between the wheels bought half a ton of plastic-bagged construction sand to load over the rear axle and then headed to the hospital to pick up my father newly-diagnosed he met me at the curb […]
“Design: A Seminar, 1982” by Jeanne Julian
Interestingly enough, proportion has been around since the fourth century B.C. says Mrs. Baedeker. So far, we’re mostly alert, here in the Lenox Hotel’s Dome Room, illuminated more for waltzing than for learning layout. Blue light rims the circular ceiling like some big gas range burner turned low. In this difficult gloom […]